Chronic Illness Memoir

A riveting and candid account of a young journalist's awakening to a life of chronic illness, weaving together her personal story with reporting to shed light on how Americans live with long-term diagnoses today. Tessa Miller was an ambitious twentysomething writer in New York City when, on a...

"A best memoir of 2020" —BookPage The darkly funny memoir of Sarah Ramey’s years-long battle with a mysterious illness that doctors thought was all in her head—but wasn’t. A revelation and an inspiration for millions of women whose legitimate health complaints are ignored. In her...

It’s 2006. After a string of rejections from men who tell her they could never, ever, ever see her “that way,” awkward third-grade teacher Micaela Blei signs up for a mysterious course called “The Divine Feminine,” and feels like she might have found the key to the perfect life. Turns out if you’re an A student, you can get an A in anything–including men. Pretty soon she’s learning to "conjure" her desires with vision boards, flirtations, and even a daring jumbotron viewing party for her, ahem ... "divine center."

A groundbreaking mind-body protocol to heal chronic pain, backed by new research. Chronic pain is an epidemic. Fifty million Americans struggle with back pain, headaches, or some other pain that resists all treatment. Desperate pain sufferers are told again and again that there is no cure for...

After a number of years of being chronically ill with Lyme disease, Jenny Rush had a momentary realization that she was overlooking a lesson that was resulting in continued ill health. As she went into her last year of dealing with chronic illness at a physical level, Jenny shifted her primary focus from the illness itself to addressing the multitude of experiences that the illness was provoking.

Brita grew up a competitive athlete, full of happiness and excitement for life. There wasn’t much that would take her out of a game as she constantly pushed her body to the limits. When she was unable to compete due to unknown and undiagnosed illness, she entered a world that was unfamiliar, and began to sink into a darkness she could never have imagined.

One day, on her way to a date, Isabella Huffington gets hit by a bike. What begins as a concussion with a diagnosed recovery time of seven-to-ten days becomes more than two years of debilitating pain with no apparent end and a string of unhelpful doctor and specialist visits. In the wreckage, jobs are canceled. Leases are broken. There is no second date. What’s left is Isabella, her body, and her pain. Because the source of her pain cannot be located within the body, she is told over and over that her pain is psychosomatic. And Isabella believes it, over and over.

Rather than focusing on the medical side of long-term conditions, this book contains bespoke advice for the parts of everyday living that often go unspoken - from practical advice on friendships, dating and independent living, to more reflective guidance on rediscovering your identity and learning to self-advocate. Chronic illness affects everybody differently, but we all want to find joy where we can and make the most of what we have. This book exists to help you take accessible steps towards that goal and build a life that truly feels like yours.

MEDICAL GASLIGHTING MEMOIR by author Anneke Vliegen, diagnosed with a combination of chronic, rare, barely visible and fluctuating diseases. Anneke describes her journey to happiness, after a misdiagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) brought her condescendence, humiliation and neglect. For twenty years, this medical gaslighting continued until she was close to death. The discovery of adrenal insufficiency, lupus and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) led to improved care and respect. The medical world had heard Anneke’s hooves, and assumed she needed to be treated like a ...

In this thought-provoking memoir, an award-winning journalist explores the chaos, doubt, and search for meaning that come with staying one step ahead of cancer for decades. “An Exercise in Uncertainty has a powerful and restorative story to tell us. Jonathan Gluck’s life of illness and...

In the fall of 1995, Dr. Saray Stancic was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. By 2003, she walked regularly with a cane, had given up virtually all unnecessary physical activity, and was on numerous medications, all with horrible side effects. After stumbling upon some studies that linked MS outcomes to diet and lifestyle, Dr. Stancic undertook a radically different approach to managing her illness.

Chronic pain, illness, and disability take so much away. Sometimes it seems as though they take everything we have ever loved and held dear. Our physical abilities and our jobs. Our current passions and future dreams. Our finances and our friends. Our sense of community and our ability to engage the world in ways we could before. Chronic pain takes away our sense of self and who we always thought ourselves to be. How in the world are we supposed to deal with this fact?

Dr. Judy Mikovits is a modern-day Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant researcher shaking up the old boys' club of science with her groundbreaking discoveries. And like many women who have trespassed into the world of men, she uncovered decades-old secrets that many would prefer to stay buried.

Lauren Windas is one of the estimated 250,000 people suffering with CFS in the UK. Whilst at university in 2012, she fell ill with a viral infection and was later diagnosed with CFS. Since then she has devoted herself to reclaiming her health and being able to live a full life, drawing on the knowledge of experts to help manage her often mysterious and hard-to-manage condition. In Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lauren recounts the highs and lows of her own health journey and experiences,.

"From the cover to the words in between, this book is a triumph & a learning tool for those with chronic illness & their families." - Jennie Louwes - Reedsy Discovery Once a person who seemed happy and healthy, Lisa Peachey's world was turned upside down as chronic illness crept in, shifting her focus from carefree living to the constant management of her body's needs. With raw honesty, Lisa shares hard-earned lessons learned on a long, painful, and expensive road. She seeks to share this knowledge with others whose doctors don't know what to do with them, offering hope to anyone feeling ...

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesn’t exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine, the stories that we unexpectedly fall into, and the secrets...

Learning to adapt to life after being diagnosed with chronic pain and illness is extremely difficult. Life as you knew it, along with your hopes and dreams for your life, literally gets turned upside down in an instant. This comes with a lot of deep complicated emotions from grief, sadness, anger, frustration to living in a constant state of uncertainty and stress. Most people assume that if you get sick, a medical professional like Dr. House will work endlessly until they have answers and a cure so you can go back to living the life you used to know.

Julie fully expected to be breathing at the end of the trip - but driving into Death Valley felt like giving up, surrendering. She'd spent years battling a mysterious illness so extreme that she often couldn't turn over in her bed. The top specialists in the world were powerless to help, and research on her disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, was at a near standstill. Having exhausted the plausible ideas, Julie turned to an implausible one. Going against both her instincts and her training, she followed the advice of strangers she'd met on the Internet.

In this lyrical, radically expansive self-portrait, celebrated poet, author, and lecturer Sophie Strand explores—with searing insight and honesty—the intersecting spaces of her own chronic illness, the complex ecology of a changing world, and the very nature of the stories we tell ourselves...

On July 22, 2009, a special meeting was held with 24 leading scientists at the National Institutes of Health to discuss early findings that a newly discovered retrovirus was linked to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), prostate cancer, lymphoma, and eventually neurodevelopmental disorders in children. When Dr. Judy Mikovits finished her presentation the room was silent for a moment, then one of the scientists said, "Oh my God!" The resulting investigation would be like no other in science.